FRIDAY, January 27

Blixa Bargeld, F-Space, Savage Republic, The Centimeters at the Echo

On the whole, this bill’s so-called extreme musicians are hypnotizing,
frequently charming, seldom grating and oftentimes beautiful — even
without the Burning Man–style spectacle accompanying them in the past.
Einstürzende Neubauten’s Blixa Bargeld hijacks the evening with a
cappella layers of Native American–esque chants and pseudo-demagogic
rants from Rede/Speech, with help from E.N. engineer Boris Wilsdorf.
But first, F-Space (including Savage Republic core member and How To
Destroy the Universe festival founder Ethan Port) will show off
Preliminary Impact Report’s various jangles, distortion and auto-shop
kling-klang plus preview the forthcoming Cormac McCarthy–inspired The
Bleeding Rays of Dawn. If that’s not enough sensory overload, Savage
Republic’s bass-driven groove and ambient drone do a consistently
excellent job of, like, drawing you out of your head space, man. With
L.A. Times’ Weirdest Band award winners the Centimeters. (Andrew Lentz)


Honeyboy Edwards at Cozy’s Bar & Grill

While the primordial origin of the blues began coalescing years before singer-guitarist Honeyboy Edwards’ 1915 birth, this son of Mississippi was on hand for its crucial leap into the modern age. He came up shoulder to shoulder with such legendary comrades as Robert Johnson, Charley Patton and Son House, and Edwards is the only one left able to fully conjure that mysterioso jolt we know today as Delta blues. His has been an extraordinary life of street singing, freight-train jumping and nonstop music making, trading in all those tangled blues-ragtime-stomp vernaculars, and even at this late date, the cat has more than enough voltage to positively mesmerize. Also Sat. 14058 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. (818) 986-6000. (Jonny Whiteside)



Morningwood, Head Automatica at the Roxy

If you’re already sick of Morningwood’s new-wave whacker “Nth Degree,” rest assured there’s plenty more taffylike tunes (such as the tough-yet-tooth-achy “Take Off Your Clothes”) where that came from. The band’s self-titled debut is easily as arousing as its name implies, though singer Chantal Claret and company are currently the source of much debate within indier-than-thou circles (the same fans who championed them before the buzz now suddenly say they’re too commercial . . . geez). One thing’s for sure, this giddy group are anything but stiff onstage. Dunno if Head Automatica’s name has similarly salacious undertones, but their music is seductive. The band have canceled show dates in the past due to singer Daryl Palumbo’s health issues, so a live set of their über-funky power-pop ragers is a rare treat. Palumbo (also in Glassjaw) throttles on H.A.’s debut, Decadence, and thrives even more so live. (Lina Lecaro)


Peter Case at McCabe’s

Peter Case has spent damn near a lifetime’s worth of energy on strumming, digging, rocking and, most importantly, perfecting the art of songwriting. The man’s steadfast insistence, from his upstart, DIY mid-’70s pioneering band the Nerves to the high, wide jangle of his ’80s-era Plimsouls to a series of engaging solo sets, has rendered an impressive volume of titles. So impressive, in fact, that we now have A Case for Case, a three-volume CD set featuring a host of performers, representing just about every musical genre, taking on some of Case’s best work. Tonight’s release bash, with the mighty Case and able cohorts Dave Alvin, Marvin Etzioni, Mike Martt, Victoria Williams and others, should rouse quite a bit more than polite applause. (Jonny Whiteside)


Poissel, Possibly

It is a match made in heaven, or perhaps somewhere a great deal stranger: the Museum of Jurassic Technology and Dave Eggers’ McSweeney’s. The museum is known for exhibiting curiosities like the teeny tiny fruit stone which may or may not have an elaborately carved Crucifixion scene on one side and a Flemish landscape on the other. McSweeney’s is known for, among other things, unusually clever writing that screws with your head. This weekend, author Paul La Farge, a frequent contributor to Eggers’ literary journal, reads from his own translation of The Facts of Winter, a collection of fictitious dreams written by 19th-century French poet-novelist Paul Poissel. Hardly anybody knows much about Paul Poissel, a situation that La Farge will remedy with a presentation of slides and a rare recording of the man himself reading from his own work. Allegedly, Poissel struggled for years with an addiction to sleep. The Facts of Winter is ostensibly a factual record of real dreams — haunting, funny, scary, weird — dreamed by fictional people in Paris in 1881. Each dream is presented as the event of a single night. It’s a slippery concept. In fact, it’s entirely possible that Paul Poissel does not even exist. “Paul Poissel was not born in 1848,” say the McSweeney’s folk. “He never became a poet, or invented puzzles for an illustrated magazine. In 1904 he did not write this book, The Facts of Winter.” If a tree falls in a snow-covered forest and nobody hears it, did it really happen? Duh. Of course it did. And then you wake up. Paul La Farge & McSweeney’s at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, Fri., Jan. 27, 7 p.m., 9341 Venice Blvd., Culver City. RSVP required, to dorna@mcsweeneys.net. (Gendy Alimurung)

LA ART SHOW, ART LA, LA FINE PRINT FAIR

Last week, Photo LA kicked off the local “art fair season,” and this weekend, already, the season climaxes in a trifecta. How to see it all? Easy. The two big ones are near each other, and together should take a day. The little one’s over at LACMA; you can combine it with a visit to the museum. So let’s get straight what’s what and what’s where. The 11th Annual Los Angeles Art Show, already opened in the Santa Monica Airport’s Barker Hangar, spans styles and centuries, bringing together old masters, classic modernists and contemporary artists as represented by some 50 dealers. Opening tonight, Art LA 06, “the new Los Angeles art fair for contemporary art,” is the cutting-edge one, with none of the 65 galleries set up in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium proffering anything more than a decade old. Like its title says, the 25 dealers participating in the 21st Annual Los Angeles Fine Print Fair, opening tomorrow, deal in prints. Maybe a few objects in edition, but basically lithos, etchings, a few photos, you get the picture: images printed on paper. So, okay, this weekend, instead of driving hither and yon to galleries, you drive here and there to art fairs. This isn’t a stretch, people. It’s not even much gas. —Peter Frank

11th Annual Los Angeles Art Show at Barker Hangar, Santa Monica Airport, 3021 Airport Ave., Thu.-Sat., Jan. 26-28, noon-7 p.m., Sun., Jan 29, noon-6 p.m.; $18. (310) 822-9145 or www.losangelesartshow.com.
Art LA 06 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, xxx Main Street, Thurs., Jan. 26, 6-9 p.m., $50; Fri.-Sat., Jan. 27-28, noon-7 p.m., Sun., Jan. 29, noon-6 p.m., $15. (323) 937-4659 or www.artfairsinc.com.
21st Annual Fine Print Fair at LACMA West, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., fifth floor penthouse, Fri., Jan. 27, 6-9 p.m. $30/$50 couple; Sat., Jan. 28, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sun., Jan. 29, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; free. (323) 857-6558 or www.laprintfair.com.

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